Borat
(2006)
20th
Century Fox
Cast:
Sacha Baron Cohen, Pamela Anderson (cameo).
Rating:
R.
Run
time: 82 mins
Genre:
Comedy.
Verdict:
Beautiful
(see rating
system)
Borat
is the invention of English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, a
smart ass who enjoys embarrassing people.
Baron
Cohen plays Borat, a pretend TV reporter from Kazakhstan in
eastern Europe - a country he portrays as dirt poor and populated
by backward, inbred peasants.
The
setup for this spoof documentary is that Borat goes to America
to learn about its culture, and winds up interviewing a lot
of people who don‘t realize they’re being “had“.
They include a Southern family trying to teach him table manners
to a group of feminists explaining women's rights.
During
his ride across the U.S., Borat also falls in love with Baywatch
star Pamela Anderson after seeing her on TV and his bid to
meet her leads to some funny situations. One of them is definitely
not seeing Borat and his extremely fat manager wrestling naked
after Borat catches him masturbating over a photo of Anderson.
YUK!
Baron
Cohen makes sure the Yanks don’t come off looking too
well, and while there are plenty of laughs, I ended up feeling
sorry for some his victims who were only trying to help a
foreigner understand America.
Jews,
women, minorities, gays and others are frequently insulted.
While Baron Cohen is Jewish, it doesn’t excuse some of
the rather malicious humour here. For example, “The running
of the Jew” is a spoof Kazakhstani equivalent of Spain’s
“Running of the Bull”.
Borat
is crude schoolboy humour that has made buckets of money at
the box office. Wildly funny in parts, very embarrassing in
others, but Baron Cohen is to be admired to bringing a fresh
approach to the comedy genre.
